"Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant." - Mark 9:9-10
After the transfiguration, Jesus commanded Peter, James, and John, not to tell anyone about that particular event until after He had risen from the dead. This caused them to wonder what that actually meant? This question probably went away shortly after the God who had predicted He would rise from the dead died, then rose from the dead. It was no mere metaphor.
The lesson we learn from this event is that we have permission to take the word of God at face value. If He says He will rise from the dead, we can assume He will rise from the dead. Which, of course, He did.
In the 20th century, Israel went through its own little resurrection. In 1948, after many centuries being scattered across the world, the Jews finally returned to their ancestral home land, becoming a sovereign nation once more. This was the culmination of a political movement known as "Zionism".
Zionism, unfortunately, has become a highly charged term in modern times. To many people, be they ignorant or bigoted, it refers to an invasive movement in the Middle East, wherein Jews sprung up from Europe and just took over Palestine, whom they have been oppressing ever since. A more reasonable, yet secular understanding of the term is that it was a necessary response to global anti-Semitism. Most nations either actively persecuted the Jews, or failed to protect them, and so it was necessary to form a Jewish state. Their ancestral homeland was just the most viable location for this.
But Zionism and its ancestors have always been far more significant than just a political movement to protect a persecuted people group. In reality, it plays a part in God's wider plan. In short, He's not done with the Jews yet.
To begin with, there are a few promises God made the Jews that are still pending. The Jews have never inherited the full territory promised to Abraham, and so by nature of God, it has always been necessary to preserve the Jews, as a people. Otherwise, God would have broken His promise.
How will the fulfilment of that promise ultimately occur? For now, that is for God to know, and us to wonder. All we have to do for now, as the disciples should have when He said "I'm going to rise from the dead", is believe He will do as He has said.
This is what we should have done, and in many cases did do, before 1948. Prior to this time, a number of alien beliefs formed, relegating the Jews and their nation to the history books, as if God had finished with them. But Scripture has always foretold that Israel will return to their land from which they were scattered (e.g. Ezekiel 36:24). God even assures us "Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it.”" (Ezekiel 36:36). The Lord has spoken it, the Lord will do it, for His name's sake!
But this will be a gradual process. As we read in Exodus 23:29, "I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you." God does not perceive time, as we do, and so He can afford to fulfil His plans as He sees fit. Thus, just as the original conquest of Israel was not a fast process, neither will the future of Israel be fulfilled in a year. It has been a very slow process from the beginning. Between 1881 and 1939, there were 5 waves of immigration back to the Holy Land, followed by an estimated 1 million Holocaust survivors migrating to Israel after its revival in 1948, and a further 800,000 Jewish people were exiled from Arab countries, moving right into Israel.
Does this not call Ezekiel's valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37) to mind? Not an instant resurrection, but in stages! Dry bones, the House of ISrael cry "Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!" (v11). But thus saith the Lord, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live." But there is a succession of resurrection. Sinews form, then flesh, then skin, then finally... "I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.’ ”" (v14).
A time will come when the Jews, presently cut off (save a remnant) for their unbelief, will know their Messiah. And as Paul says, "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!" (Romans 11:11-12).
Right now, we are seeing these things come to pass in ways our forerunners in the faith could scarcely imagine. It will be a slow process, as it has been, but we are seeing Biblical prophecy unfold before our very eyes. Israel has returned to their land, as God has promised, and they are continuing to return, as God has prophesied. We can therefore be confident that He will do all else He has promised, including the eventual repentance of Israel, who will know their Messiah, even as the Remnant do now.
Zionism, therefore, is more than just a political movement. It is, ultimately, the beginning of the fulfilment of Biblical prophecy regarding the Jews and the land of Israel. If you know enough about it, it may even be a useful evangelistic tool. This is why the devil has conditioned his people to hate the very word "Zionism". But as Christians, it is something on which we should look quite favorably.